Studies on the regulatory mechanism of actin cytoskeleton: bistabilities of the ordered structures of actomyosin mixture

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24740294
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Biophysics/Chemical physics
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: MIYAZAKI Makito 早稲田大学, 理工学術院, 次席研究員 (40609236)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: アクトミオシン / 分子モーター / 細胞骨格 / 自己組織化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Animal cells possess two types of actomyosin bundles called contractile rings and stress fibers, which are essential for cell division and cell shape maintenance, respectively. To investigate the assembly mechanisms of these cytoskeletal structures, we utilized purified actomyosin and cell-sized water-in-oil droplets or liposomes, and searched the biochemical and physical conditions at which the ordered structures resembling contractile rings and stress fibers were assembled. Although it was hard to verify the bistabilities of actomyosin systems, we found that contractile actomyosin rings were self-organized in a cell-sized spherically confined space, and contractile actomoysin bundle networks were self-organized when the motion of actin filaments was restricted in a two dimensional plane.

Free Research Field

生物物理学